Conventionally, with respect to this type of a shower nozzle, there has been known a shower nozzle having the constitution shown in FIG. 14 (for example, see, TOTO General Catalogue 2002 to 2003 version, p.678). In this type of shower nozzle, as shown in the drawing, the shower nozzle has a curved shape as a whole and a water spraying portion 100 is formed on a distal end side of the shower nozzle which forms a water flow portion 200 therein and, a holding portion 110 is contiguously joined to the water spraying portion 100. Further, a push button 120 which performs water jetting and water stopping is formed on a side surface of the holding portion 110.
Further, an open/close valve (not shown in the drawing) is arranged in the water flow portion 200 and a user, in a state that he/she holds the holding portion 110, manipulates the push button 120 with a thumb of his/her hand which holds the holding portion 110.
However, from a viewpoint of the manufacturability, the shower nozzle on which the above-described conventional push button 120 is mounted has following drawbacks.
That is, since the push button 120 is arranged on a side surface of the holding portion 110, the manipulating direction of the push button 120 assumes an approximately vertical direction with respect to the water flow portion 200, the open/close direction of the open/close valve assumes an approximately vertical position with respect to the water flow portion 200. Accordingly, to define the water flow portion 200 through the open/close valve and, at the same time, to perform the water jetting and water stopping by opening and closing the open/close valve, the water flow portion 200 eventually has a complicated shape.
Further, from a viewpoint of assembling property, the conventional shower nozzle has a following drawback. The holding portion 110 has a curved shape for facilitating the holding of the shower nozzle. Further, to allow a user to push a push button 120 with his/her thumb in a state that the user uses the shower nozzle with his/her hand, the open/close valve and the push button 120 are arranged on a side surface of the curved holding portion 110. Accordingly, the shower nozzle is assembled such that, the curved holding portion 110 is split in two, the open/close valve and the push button 120 are incorporated into one split holding portion 110, and this one holding portion 110 is covered with another split holding portion 110, and joining portions are welded to each other. Accordingly, it is not easy to incorporate the push button 120 in the shower nozzle on a user side. In view of the above, when a user who purchases a shower nozzle which has no push button 120 wants to add a function of jetting and stopping water on a proximal end of the shower nozzle, it is necessary to newly purchase a shower nozzle per se which has such a function.
Further, the conventional shower nozzle has a following drawback from a view point of the easy-to-use property of the shower nozzle.
As mentioned previously, the push button 120 is arranged on the side surface of the holding portion 110 to facilitate the manipulation of the push button 120 with the thumb when the user holds the shower nozzle and hence, when the user uses the shower nozzle in a state that the shower nozzle is hung on a shower hook, for example, to manipulate the push button 120, it is necessary to push the push button 120 from the front.
However, since the shower nozzle is curved as mentioned previously, the push button 120 is not always directed frontwardly and even when the push button 120 is directed frontwardly in a state that the shower nozzle is hooked on the shower hook, the manipulation performance is extremely poor when the push button 120 is pushed.
Further, the push button 120 is provided for opening and closing the open/close valve arranged in the water flow portion 200 and hence, the push button 120 cannot control a water amount jetted from the shower nozzle. Accordingly, it is necessary for the user to adjust a flow rate by separately manipulating a flow rate adjusting function of the spout which supplies hot and cold water to the shower nozzle.
On the other hand, to enhance the erosion resistance of the appearance of the shower nozzle and, at the same time, to improve the design by enhancing the aesthetic appearance, so as to create the high quality feeling, there may be a case in which the surface treatment such as rating or coating is applied to the shower nozzle (see, for example, TOTO General Catalogue 2002 to 2003 version, p702). In such a shower nozzle, to cope with a case in which the user drops the shower nozzle by accident, a film thickness of the surface treatment is increased to make the peeling-off of the surface treatment such as the plating difficult thus enhancing the durability.
However, to consider the shower nozzle to which the surface treatment is applied, when the film thickness of the plating or the like is increased as mentioned previously, the greater the film thickness becomes, it is more difficult to form the uniform film thickness over the whole shower nozzle and hence, the irregularities are liable to be easily generated. Accordingly, to form the uniform large film thickness, there also arises a drawback that an expense required for the surface treatment is pushed up and a cost of parts is increased.
Further, as shown in FIG. 14, for example, when the plating is directly applied to the shower nozzle which is integrally formed with the water flow portion 200, the plating treatment is also applied to the water flow portion 200. In such a case, when the shower nozzle is used for a long period, the plating on the water flow portion 200 is peeled off and plating pieces may be mixed into the flowing water and hence, it is necessary to prevent the treatment such as the plating from being applied to the water flow portion 200.
Accordingly, to prevent the surface treatment such as the plating from being applied to the water flow portion 200, it is necessary to perform the masking of the water flow portion 200 or an operation to perform the surface treatment such as plating temporarily and, thereafter, to peel off portions of the water flow portion 200 to which the surface treatment such as the plating is applied. Such an operation has a drawback that a cost necessary for performing the surface treatment is pushed up.